3 North Bergen public works employees feel legal advice is effort to influence grand jury testimony

John Munson/The Star-LedgerThree public works employees have told The Star-Ledger they and other staffers consider the legal sessions an effort by allies of Mayor Nicholas J. Sacco, shown in this file photo, and other North Bergen officials to influence testimony before a grand jury.

NORTH BERGEN — When North Bergen’s Department of Public Works was raided by state detectives in February and barraged with dozens of subpoenas, town leaders moved quickly. They hired eight law firms to counsel the agency’s staff of about 50 — ranging from sanitation workers to truck drivers — and gathered them for meetings at Town Hall.

The town, the workers were told, would stand by them. Don’t lie to investigators, they were told.

North Bergen officials say the legal help was the town’s right and obligation, a service to employees to help them prepare for interviews with state officials investigating allegations of public corruption against the public works superintendent. But some workers don’t see it that way.

Three public works employees have told The Star-Ledger they and other staffers consider the legal sessions an effort by allies of Mayor Nicholas J. Sacco and other North Bergen officials to influence testimony before a grand jury. The three employees say a number of the agency’s workers have brought these accusations to the attorney general, telling investigators town officials are trying to keep tabs on their accounts and control the course of the investigation through intimidation.

Some workers who are suspected of being informants, the three employees say, have been ostracized and called "rats" by co-workers or received what they consider to be arbitrary reprimands from supervisors. And last month, North Bergen sent a letter to the entire DPW work force, warning workers against making false accusations and saying that the town has a "zero-tolerance policy against harassment and retaliation."

In response, the attorney general’s office has widened its inquiry into these and other stories of subtle pressure and, in recent days, overt harassment, according to two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case. The law enforcement sources asked for anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss investigations publicly. The three public works employees said they feared retribution and also requested their names not be used.

The attorney general’s concern over the new allegations is just one recent development in a case that started more than a year ago and has expanded well beyond its initial target, James Wiley, the public works superintendent.

Mayor Sacco, also a state senator and a North Bergen assistant schools superintendent, has been subpoenaed along with Wiley and the agency’s commissioner, Frank Gargiulo, according to two lawyers involved in the case. In all, roughly 40 people have received subpoenas in connection with the case, said three lawyers, who between them represent more than 25 of the workers. The lawyers, also citing the ongoing investigation, requested anonymity.

The initial investigation was triggered by allegations that over several years workers had been strong-armed for fear of their jobs to perform home improvement chores for Wiley, and that they were routinely deployed as political henchmen to bully North Bergen residents and merchants into supporting the local Democratic Municipal Committee.

A spokesman for the attorney general, citing policy, refused to comment on a continuing investigation or on the identities of people who have been subpoenaed, or on whether anyone has yet appeared before a grand jury.

John Lynch, an attorney hired by North Bergen, represents about 15 of the public works employees. While saying none of his clients was culpable, he said other workers had performed chores at Wiley’s house. He said investigators looking for wrongdoing by Sacco were inflating the case out of proportion.

"It all goes back to the work at Wiley’s house," Lynch said. "Only Wiley has a problem."

Reached by phone, Wiley declined comment. Sacco declined to be interviewed for this story.

Ralph J. Lamparello, who represents both Sacco and Gargiulo, said in an interview that neither man was a target of the investigation. In his role as "special counsel" to North Bergen, he said, he convened the meetings with the workers within a week of the attorney general’s raid in February to let them know the township would provide them with a lawyer.

"I told them to tell the truth," he said. "I also enunciated clearly that no one retaliates against anyone, no one speaks ill of anyone."

Doug Bauman/For the Jersey JournalNorth Bergen Department of Public Works superintendent James Wiley, shown in this file photo.

The letter to workers — drafted by Lamparello’s office and signed by Herbert Klitzner, the township attorney — went out to the agency’s employees on May 3.

"Therefore, every employee in the DPW is directed to cease and desist from perpetuating rumors and making unfounded comments and accusations to co-workers," the letter said. "The township has a zero-tolerance policy against harassment and retaliation. Specifically, it is strictly prohibited to harass or retaliate against an employee because he or she is cooperating with the grand jury investigation."

One of the current workers said he saw in the language an attempt to stifle dissent.

"If everybody shuts up, everything’s fine," the worker said.

The three current and two former workers who spoke with The Star-Ledger said that chores at Wiley’s house change with the seasons. They described workers having to replace piping in Wiley’s basement, cleaning the lining of his swimming pool, shoveling the sidewalk, and vacuuming.

As a condition for being hired, they all said they had to distribute flyers and tear down opposition signs. Residents with a Sacco sign in the window receive prompt attention, they said. Residents without a sign often have to wait for service.

Instructions, they said, come from Wiley or another supervisor, and are usually camouflaged.

"They come to you and say, ‘don’t you care about your town,’ " the worker said. "That’s how they work it. If you’re a young guy, you learn to tell your wife or your girlfriend you won’t make it to dinner if they say they need you somewhere."

The coercion they feel now to alter what they tell investigators seems similarly discreet, the worker said. " ‘No one can tell you who to support,’ " he said he was told by a lawyer." ‘You can support whatever political party you want.’ "